Dead of Night

A weekend in the country? I should go.

Architect Walter Craig arrives at Pilgrim's Farm for a weekend party held by what he hopes is a prospective client. Upon entering the farm house, Walter amazes everyone by telling them that he has a recurring nightmare about the house, the weekend and everyone in it. This sets off talk about the supernatural and each guest takes it in turn to recount their own strange tale...

Dead Of Night is brought to us courtesy of Ealing Studios, somewhat a veer from the normal output associated with that bastion of British cinema, it is none the less one of the finest films to have come from the place that gave us The Ladykillers, Kind Hearts And Coronets and The Man in The White Suit. I often wonder if Dead...

Ever since I was a small child I have loathed ventriloquist's dummies. They put the fear of death into me - and I am fairly certain that seeing this film in the 1970s is to blame. It's a compendium of four stories told by guests at a farmhouse, and is all kicked off by Mervyn Johns ("Craig") who has a recurring - and rather menacing - dream that predicts doom and gloom. Before he can finish his story, though, we hear from three of the others. One involves a married couple where the husband becomes drawn into the life on the other side of his mirror: a mirror that comes from a room with a grisly past. The second is a more light-hearted haunting mystery with Basil Bradford and Naunton Wayne before the third, featuring an effective Michael Red...